


Worth the Wait

by appalachianemo



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone: Amnesty (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, there's about 6 sentences of angst but it all gets resolved IMMEDIATELY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 01:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17355965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appalachianemo/pseuds/appalachianemo
Summary: Duck wants to propose but that future seeing moth knows whats up.





	Worth the Wait

**Author's Note:**

> about a week ago i had a thought about duck proposing. i thought making a short post about on tumblr would rid me of it. but sadly no. here we are. 3k+ words later.
> 
> Also, literally any time Duck uses the word 'honey' feel free to read that entire line of dialogue in Final Pam voice (god knows i did). And finally swing by my tumblr [ @emomagnusburnsides](http://emomagnusburnsides.tumblr.com) if you wanna scream about taz with me!!!

Duck stood shuffling nervously outside Indrid’s Winnebago, his hands shoved in his coat and breath making small clouds in the air. He’d been waiting outside in the cold December air for almost five minutes now. With all of Indrid’s future seeing bullshit, and Duck telling him what time he would be there, he should have been ready to go. Any other time Duck or the Pine Guard had come over he’d opened the door right before they knocked. He shivered against the cold wind that swept across the mountain, hands clenching in his pockets.  _Fuck._

Duck felt around again then started slapping all of his pockets.  _Fuck, fuck, fuck._  The box wasn’t there. He jogged back to his truck and clicked the lights on.  _There’s no way. There’s no way I forgot the ring._  Sure as shit, though, Duck forgot it. As he was having this realization Indrid placed a hand on his shoulder and spun him around before kissing him hard on the mouth.

Duck turned a deep shade of red, but blamed it on the cold. “Well hey there, darlin. I-”

“Seem to have forgotten something. Shall we go back to your apartment first then?” Indrid was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet and smiling like this was the best day of his life. Duck squinted at him for a moment and prayed to Minerva that this was just him being excited about the date. He sighed and walked Indrid around to the other side of the truck.

“Go ahead and climb in, Indrid.” Duck opened the door and offered his hand for help.

Indrid immediately turned the heat up as high as it would go and took off his gloves. He hated being cold but he was willing to suffer through it if it meant feeling Duck’s warm hands. The second Duck got his seatbelt on Indrid snatched his hand. “Can I have that back until I get us outta this forest?”

Indrid sighed and let go, “I suppose so. Where are we going tonight?”

“That, uh, that Wolf Ember Grill that we’ve been to a few times.” Duck flipped on his brights, driving extra slow. “I know you like the… the fruity lemonade they have there.”

“Oh lovely. I can’t wait.” Duck turned onto the main road into town and turned the radio on. They were silent, only the roar of the engine and a soft bluegrass song playing on the radio filling the car. After Duck turned onto the main road he reached his hand across the car and snagged Indrid’s hand again. He knew he had probably foreseen most of this, but he hung onto the hope that he could still surprise him. “Don’t forget to swing by your house, Duck. And no, I didn’t see it coming. Just know your patterns.”

Indrid switched the radio over to some awful pop station and Duck groaned, “Aww come on Indrid… You know I can’t stand this garbage.”

“Really? You don’t? Because…” Indrid took a deep breath and started singing, horribly off key and warbly. “ _I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me… I still feel your touch in myyy dreams._ ”

Duck went white knuckled on the steering wheel. He didn’t want to admit it, especially not to Indrid, but this was his favorite song in college and knew every word to it. Softly, he whispered, “Indrid, no.”

“You know you wanna sing. Come on…” Indrid leaned across the cab of the truck as he sang the next line. He kept touching Duck’s face and putting his head on his shoulder. Not only was he being distracting, but Duck was finding it harder not to sing along. They’d pulled up to a stoplight right as the chorus was about to start.

Duck took a deep breath before belting out the chorus, wildly pumping his arms and dancing. Indrid joined back in through a fit of laughter, honored to see this happy, carefree side of Duck that he didn’t show very often. They’d been dating for a year now and Duck had loved every second of it. Sure, it had been awkward at first, beyond awkward, as Duck hadn’t had a long-term boyfriend in over five years and Indrid hadn’t really even had  _friends_  since the 1960’s.

They muddled through the first few months with a lot of teasing (and maybe some advice) from Aubrey and Ned, until they’d settled into a rhythm with each other. Something that was predictable and familiar and absolutely wonderful. Duck looked forward to coming home and finding Indrid curled up on the couch, Lulu in has lap, crumpled visions and timelines scattered around the coffee table. Sometimes there was a home-cooked, sometimes it was just take-out, but there was always Indrid.

He parked his truck in front of his apartment. “I’ll be right back, honey. You don’t go anywhere.”

Duck kissed his cheek and hopped out, jogging up the stairs. When he came back downstairs, Indrid didn’t look surprised at all. Just leaned across the truck again to rest his head on Duck’s shoulder, “Ready to finally get on with our evening?”

“Hell yeah.”

Duck and Indrid were sitting in a secluded corner of Wolf Ember Grill. The sun had long ago set over the Allegheny Mountains but it was still fairly bright outside thanks to the full moon. Indrid found himself frequently staring out the window in admiration. He’d moved around the country some decades ago, but sight of the full moon on illuminating the forest and the river would always his favorite. He noticed Duck watching him and, well, it was one of his favorites. Indrid reached across the table to squeeze his hand and tell him he loves him, but stopped.

He suddenly got several visions at once: A car accident on the far side of town, two timelines where Duck proposes tonight, one where he didn’t, and a baby being born in-  _Wait._  Indrid’s head snapped up, tears forming in his eyes. He had gotten a vision of this earlier, but a part of him hadn’t expected it to come true. Mostly because a small part of him often questioned why Duck was ever interested in him in the first place. Why would he want to be with someone who had a propensity for drinking things that tasted like nectar and occasionally turned into a large humanoid moth.

Now though, the visions had been much more clear and Duck was shuffling in his pockets, searching for what Indrid assumed was the ring. When he found it in his coat and glanced up, he noticed Indrid wiping at his eyes, smiling like he knew a great secret. “Goddammit, Indrid.”

“No, no it’s fine.” Indrid leaned forward trying to look less… Knowing, he supposed. “Please-”

“Nope. We’re gonna finish our dinner and I’ll try again later.” Duck shoved a bite of cake in his mouth, clearly disgruntled but not actually angry.

“You know you’ll never be able to surprise me, but I appreciate the effort.” Duck smiled but tried to hide it. “I love you.”

“Yeah, I love you too, Indrid.”

~~~~

It was almost another month before Duck tried again. It was the week after New Years and the town still had the Christmas decorations up. He had thought it would be nice to go look at the lights and go ice skating. That was until Indrid emerged from their bedroom in a mound of coats and sweaters, vaguely resembling the little brother in A Christmas Story. So maybe this wouldn’t be as romantic as he’d wanted it to be but he’d make it work. He snagged Indrid’s hand and they headed out the door.

Despite all of his layers, he still ended up shivering after about thirty seconds of being outside. Though, he insisted he would be fine as long as they didn’t stay out too long. Indrid was more excited to go ice skating than see the lights. He claimed to love it despite not having gone in years. When they got there, the rink was fairly busy but Indrid didn’t care he wanted to go anyways. Duck vaguely wondered if he knew what he had planned, but tried not to think about it. Watching all the little kids carelessly zoom and tumble around the rink, he had a different concern.

Duck was already mentally cursing himself for what he was about to do. He tried not to ask this unless related to the Pine Guard, but he couldn’t help himself. “Hey Indrid. Uh, how do… How do you-”

“See this shaking out?” He said with Duck.

“There are, oh, three timelines where things go off without a hitch and one where this ends in disaster.” He stood, very wobbly on his skates and extended a hand. “Are you ready to see which one will ring true?”

Duck took it and stood up, “Yeah. Let’s go… Hey. Should we be worried about you breaking your glasses?”

“Perhaps.” He thought as he half walked, half stumbled into the rink. “Although, I don’t foresee anything going quite that poorly.”

Duck made his way onto the ice much more gracefully than Indrid, though that wasn’t saying much. He moved with all the grace and beauty of newborn deer. He shook his head and skated up beside him, “Hey honey. I thought you said you’d done this before.”

“I have!” Duck grabbed one arm to keep him from falling and Indrid latched on to the wall with the other. “I never said I was good… It’s about to start snowing.”

Sure enough, about fifteen seconds later, the snow started coming down in fat, lazy flakes. The kind that clung to the streetlamps and your clothes, quickly coating anything they touched in white. Indrid looked ethereal, haloed from behind in the fading January light and snowflakes stuck in his hair. He laughed at the dumbstruck look on Duck’s face and for a moment Duck completely forgot where they were or why they were there. He was only distantly aware of being in the way of people when he leaned towards Indrid and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. As he pulled away, he remembered the ring in his pocket and he decided, fuck the original plan.

He opened his mouth to speak, but as he did Indrid’s face twisted for just a moment. Just long enough to let Duck know he’d had a vision, and  _of course_ he did. Now, he was smiling like he had a month ago, but he could tell Indrid was trying not to. Duck hesitated, he’d been in love with Indrid for over a year now and had been planning on proposing for a few months. He wanted to just do it already. But he really wanted to surprise him, too, even just once. Duck knew it was ridiculous, Indrid was almost never surprised. It came with the seeing crap. But, he wanted this to be something more than just another predicted future for him.

No matter what Duck wanted, it seemed fate had different plans. As Duck was weighing his options, someone crashed into him. He toppled over onto Indrid, suddenly thankful he’d worn all those layers. While it may have protected his body, it did nothing to protect his head from cracking against the ice. Duck quickly pulled himself into a kneeling position next to him.  _Fuck_. This had gone to hell seven ways from Sunday. His own lip was bleeding, he got the distinct feeling his knee was bruised, but worst of all: Indrid’s glasses were broken. He made to sit up but Duck put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Indrid, darlin, I need you to stay still for just a second. You uh- Your glasses are broke.”

“Oh. This is no good.”

“No shit, babe.” Duck rolled his eyes. “It’s only the one lens though. So, why don’t uh… Why don’t you… Keep a hold on your glasses I guess. And I’ll. I’ll try and pick you up?”

Duck climbed to his feet and with the help Juno, who he hadn’t seen there before, they got him off the ice. Indrid sat on the bench, holding the lens of his glasses together, while Duck removed their skates and but their shoes back on. He gave him the keys to go start the truck and get it warmed up while he returned everything. Duck idly wondered if this was the disaster timeline, or if this was something Indrid hadn’t seen altogether.

Back in the truck, Indrid was still holding his glasses together and rubbing the back of his head. He knew his own injuries were superficial, but that was only because Indrid had taken the worst and cushioned his fall. He pulled out of the parking lot and started heading back to the Winnebago. They’d kept it hidden at an old ranger station in the Monongahela just in case there ever was an incident where Indrid was lost or broke his glasses, and tonight they were both very glad they did.

“How are you feelin, Indrid?” Duck reached over to put a hand on his knee.

“Oh you know. I’ve got a headache, my chest hurts from where I broke your fall. But overall could be worse.” He laughed for a second. “Though, this was definitely the disaster option.”

Indrid had about a dozen pairs of backup glasses, but he could never remember where he left them. By the time he found them, both he and Duck were exhausted and decided to crash there for the night. Indrid began turning on the space heaters he had set up while Duck found all of their blankets and spread them out on the bed. Indrid heated up two glasses of eggnog and made his way into the back room. He set one on each side of the bed before climbing and curling himself around Duck.

“Hey Indrid?”

“Yes, love?”

“You…” Duck sighed. “You know why this. Why I-”

“I don’t, Duck. You and I both know there are very rarely things that surprise me.” He gave him a small squeeze. “This is important to you, though, so this is important to me.”

~~~~

Over the next few weeks Duck just… Kept the ring on him at all times. He thought maybe if he surprised himself with it, he could surprise Indrid too. But that future seeing motherfucker  _always knew._  No matter what Duck did or where. Indrid. Always. Knew. There had been one frustrating incident leaving the Lodge where he’d accidentally pulled the box out of his coat pocket instead of his keys. Duck, very mistakenly, thought Indrid would be surprised and was three words into the speech he’d had prepared before he cut him off. To give him credit, Indrid tried not to laugh while he told him he knew.

Duck tried everything he could think of: romantic dates, sitting on the couch watching tv, while they were grocery shopping. Nothing seemed to surprise him. When the full moon hit in January, Duck had the brief idea of inviting Indrid to the hunt and planning a small cushion of time to propose then. They had been sitting in a meeting in the basement of Amnesty Lodge and Mama had been going on about having to corner this one near the river bank a ways out of town. They needed two people to head out there first and keep an eye out for when the abomination showed up.

 _Indrid and I could go out there,_  he thought.  _It would give me plenty of time._  He didn’t get much farther into the thought as Indrid’s voice cut through the room, far more serious than anyone had ever heard it. “Duck Newton, absolutely not.”

“I wasn’t- Fuck, Indrid, I’m not..”

“Duck Newton you will not ask me to marry you on that hunt. There is not a single timeline where it doesn’t end in utter disaster.” Duck was pretty sure he would’ve taken his glasses off and glared at him would he not turn into a giant, humanoid moth. Instead he cleared his throat and went back to doodling. “Besides. I don’t think it’s nearly as romantic as you do.”

Duck crossed his arms, grumbling about how it couldn’t end that bad, and tried to ignore the stares from everyone else. It wasn’t like they didn’t know he had a ring and everything.

Valentine’s day rolled around and Duck had all these romantic plans, but no plans to propose. Well. Maybe one. It didn’t matter, Indrid would see through it anyways. He’d gotten better at not being obvious he knew what was about to go down, but he had a few small tells. He’d find Duck’s hand and squeeze it, then start fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. Christ this was frustrating but Duck knew it would be worth it in the long run.

They stumbled through the door around ten on Valentine’s day, both of them more than a little wine drunk and laughing about running into Ned and Barclay at the couple’s pottery and wine night. (The event was hilariously titled the Chug & Squeeze) Duck helped Indrid out of coat before taking off his own and hanging them up. Indrid had ready made his way into the kitchen and was haphazardly scribbling something onto a napkin. He quickly crumpled it and tossed it aside before Duck walked in and started pouring them some eggnog.

Duck took one of the cups out of his hand, “Darlin, is this even good anymore? It’s been sittin in our fridge for what? Two months now?”

“It smells fine… Though the whiskey might be hiding the rotting smell.” Indrid took a sip and smiled, though that didn’t encourage Duck any. Instead he remembered that he’d left Indrid’s ring in his jacket. He’d thought about making a little clay box and putting it in there, but he’d decided against it when Indrid started smiling at him. He set the cup down on the counter and went to go back to his coat, but Indrid snagged him by his back pocket and spun him around.

He wrapped his arms around Duck and sighed happily, “Love, you know you don’t have to surprise me, right? I’ll be happy no matter how you ask.”

“I know… It’s just… I wanna. You know it’s-” Duck put his head on his shoulder. “I just feel like I should I guess?”

“Duck, it is impossible to surprise me. I can think of, oh, four times in the past ten years that I’ve been surprised. You know this.” He rubbed small circles into his back. “I love the sentiment you’re trying to put into-”

“Indrid! You fuckin future seein asshole.” Duck grabbed the napkin he’d just spotted on the counter. “You had a vision about this! Right before I came in here!”

He sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Yes I did. The one earlier this evening and the one just now are the only two I’ve had in a while. The amount of visions I’m having about you and I are becoming less and less and I was starting to get worried you’d never ask.” Duck actually looked angry and Indrid could understand. He was, in a sense, manipulating the future. “I saw us having a heartfelt conversation and you asking me, but clearly that’s not coming true anymore.”

Duck stomped out of the room and rifled through his jacket pocket. For a split second Indrid thought he might be getting ready to leave. Not permanently, but maybe go blown off some steam, as this was definitely the most upset he’d ever seen him. Instead, Duck stomped back into the room and threw the box him, barely giving him time to catch it before it hit him in the face.

“Indrid, for god’s sakes will you just act surprised and marry me?” Duck crossed his arms over his chest and bit his lip.

“Well,” Indrid flushed bright red, staring at the box as he turned it over in his hands, and mumbled “This isn’t how I saw this going. In any timeline.”

Before Indrid could say yes, of course he was going to say yes, Duck was kissing him. He was surprised for just a moment before kissing him back, and yeah. This was definitely worth the wait.


End file.
